


Mother 1: A Retelling

by Lucariokid912



Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings
Genre: Adventure, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-07-28 10:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16239434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucariokid912/pseuds/Lucariokid912
Summary: A retelling of one of my favorite video game franchises, the mother series. There will be a couple of minor differences from the game with one or two major differences. Rated T for slight cursing.





	1. The Beginning (creative title I know)

"Ninten can you do the dishes? I asked your sisters an hour ago but they still haven't done it." The story takes place on the edge of the town Podunk, where strange things have been happening recently. Our hero is about to experience these events first hand.

"I will in a second mom!" Ninten is a relatively standard 12 year old boy. He likes baseball, he was liked in school, he loved his family even though his dad couldn't be home often, and he liked video games. However there was one thing that separated him from others, and that's the fact that he had psychic powers. Granted he couldn't do much with them but he could still pick up small objects, and that was enough for him to want to keep them under wraps.

Ninten was in his room sorting through his baseball cards when he heard his mom's voice asking for help with chores, and he can't exactly say no to his mom. However as he approaches the door, the lights suddenly start to flicker and soon shut off completely.

"Mom did the power go off?" He was about to open the door when he heard s tipping sound from behind him. "(What was that?)" When Ninten turned around he was face to face with his lamp, now sporting a torn power cord (probably that ripping sound) and a brand new face that was snarling at him

[Lamp drew near]

"(Why is it floating?! Why does it have a face?! What's happening?!)" Before he could fully process the situation, The lamp charged into his head.

[Lamp's attack. 2 damage to ninten]

The still extremely confused Ninten tried to punch it, but the lamp quickly moved out the way.

[Ninten's attack. Just missed.]

The lamp tried to hit him again, but he managed to dodge it and retaliate with a punch, sending the lamp careening backwards.

[Lamp's attack. Ninten dodged swiftly]

[Ninten's attack. 3 damage to lamp]

The lamp had a noticeable crack in it, so as a last ditch effort it tried to strangle ninten with its cord, but Ninten was ready for it and grabbed as soon as it got close, then threw it to the ground and jumped on it, smashing the lamp.

[Lamp's attack. Just missed]

[Ninten's attack SMAAAASH! 10 damage to lamp. Lamp shattered into pieces]

[YOU WIN!]

With the newly shattered lamp on his floor, Ninten ran out his room to check on his mom and sisters. "Mom, Minnie, Mimmie are you guys-"

"Help! Mom! Ninten!" Immediately recognizing the voice, Ninten ran for his sisters room to protect her. "Minnie, are you ok?!" When Ninten opened the door, the first thing he saw was his sister hiding in the corner and her lamp also flying wildly around her room.

[Lamp drew near]

Ninten ran forward and punched the lamp to get it's attention.

[Ninten's attack. 3 damage to lamp]

The lamp charged at the newcomer, clearly angry about the interference, and tried to bite his arm.

[Lamp's attack. 2 damage to Ninten]

Using the painful situation to his advantage, Ninten ran to the nearest wall to try and smash the lamp against it. This worked surprisingly well as the lamp was slammed full force against the wall and shattered due to the force.

[Ninten's attack. SMAAAASH! 8 damage to lamp. Lamp shattered into pieces]

[YOU WIN!]

Seeing that the lamp was destroyed, Minnie ran over to her brother.

"Ninten! Thank you!" She quickly hugs him, he kneels down and does the same.

"Did it hurt you Minnie?

"N-no I'm fine, just, (sniff) what's happening to our house?"

"(Oh god she's shaking, she must be scared out of her mind). Stay in here, I'm going to check on Mimmie. Just yell if you need me ok?"

"Ok bro, but please be careful."

As Ninten entered mimmies room, he was surprised by two things. 1. The attacker this time was his sister's favorite doll instead of a lamp. 2. Said doll was currently latched on to her and twisting her leg.

"(Oh hell no!) GET OFF OF HER!" Ninten used his psychic powers to pry the doll off of his sister, giving her the chance to crawl away. It seemed to stare into Ninten's soul before charging at him.

[Doll drew near]

The doll was faster then the lamp, surprisingly so. This caught ninten off gaurd and let the doll ram directly into his stomach.

[Doll's attack. SMAAAASH! 11 damage to Ninten]

Ninten tried to back away and managed to land a decent punch on the doll's side.

[Ninten's attack. 4 damage to doll]

The doll tried to kick Ninten in his stomach, but ninten managed to get out of the way in time, landing a punch on the possessed toy.

[Doll's attack. Just missed]

[Nintens attack. 3 damage to doll]

"(I've always thought this stupid thing looked creepy anyway!)" Seeing opportunity, Ninten followed up quickly with another punch, causing the doll to fall to the floor.

[Ninten's attack. 3 damage to doll]

He then grabbed the doll and slammed it against Mimmie's dresser. The doll twitched a bit, but slumped over and stopped moving.

[Ninten's attack. SMAAAASH! 8 Damage to doll. Doll stopped moving.]

[YOU WIN!]

He kept staring at the doll in case it got back up, not wanting to take any chances. After what had felt like forever, the lights lit back up as if nothing had happened

"Ninten"?

"Mimmie! Your doll didn't hurt you, did it?"

"N-No I'm fine, it only just started moving before you came in. Is Minnie ok?"

"She's fine, I checked on her. Are you sure your leg is ok?"

"No, It didn't hurt me. Do you know what's happening? Why would my doll attack me?"

"I don't know, but hopefully the lights coming on means nothing else will attack us."

"Can we please go downstairs and find mom? I'm still scared."

"Ok, stay behind me, just in case anything else happens. I don't want you getting hurt."

Just as they were about to leave the room, The door flew open and Minnie walked in.

"Minnie, I thought I told you to wait in your room."

"The lights came back on, so I thought it would be fine."

"Minnie, I don't know if we're safe or not. You should have waited for me. (Funny, she doesn't seem scared at all now)".

"Umm, Ninten? Can we go down and find mom now?" Minnie didn't even notice her sister before she spoke up.

"Mimmie! You're ok! Did your lamp attack you as well?"

"No, but my doll started flying around." She was startled by the sudden attention from her sister.

"Awwww really... You better not have broken it!" She pointed at Ninten as she said this.

"It's fine, see for yourself." He pointed at the doll on the dresser. It still hasn't moved, but he still felt uncomfortable being in the same room as it. "Now can we talk about this downstairs? Like Mimmie just said we still need to find mom."

With no further arguments, the three of them left the room and headed downstairs. As they reached the floor, they saw the toaster smashed on the floor and their mom standing over it with a frying pan. She immediately ran up too her children and embraced them.

"Oh thank god you kids are ok! I was so worried when the power went out! You're not hurt are you?"

"My head hurts a bit and I got hit in the stomach but other then that we're fine. Did you get attacked also?"

She checked Ninten's head after he said this, after confirming that there were no bumps or bruises, she continued talking. "The toaster just grew a face and tried to hurt me, but I destroyed it before-, wait what do you mean also?"

"Our lamps and Mimmie's doll tried to attack us. We weren't hurt other then my stomach and my head, but I had to smash the lamps. I hope your not mad about that."

"It was so creepy! My lamp had a face and big teeth and tried to bite me before Ninten smashed it! Please don't be mad it him, he saved us!" Minnie suddenly started talking and staring at their mom with puppy dog eyes before the women could respond.

"I don't care about a few smashed lamps as long as you three are safe, those can be easily replaced."

"Thanks mom, but do you mind if I call dad about this? He might know something."

"I was actually about to suggest that. I'll go and clean up those lamps while your at it. Minnie, Mimmie, can you two help me?"

"Ok" the twins said in unison sad they rushed upstairs.

Ninten went over to the phone and quickly dialed his dads number. He was still nervous about the possibility of his mom and sisters being attacked while they were upstairs, but if his dad really did know about what just happened then he might be able to tell him how to prevent it from happening again.

(Ring...Ring...Ring...Click)

"Hello who is this?"

"Hey dad, it's Ninten. Can I-."

"Oh Son! How are you?"

"I'm fine, but something weird just happened here"

"Something weird? Well it must have been pretty serious for you to call me, what happened?"

"Well, we were just sitting down at home, me, mom and the twins I mean, but suddenly the lights went off. My lamp grew a face and tried to possibly eat me, but I smashed it before it could. The same thing happened with Minnie's lamp and Mimmie's doll, only the doll didn't get a new face. From the looks of it Mom was attacked by the toaster as well. The lights came back on after the doll stopped moving, and we're all fine, but do you have any idea what's happening?" The more Ninten retold his story out loud, the more stupid and fake it sounded. Heck, he probably wouldn't have believed it if he didn't see it himself.

"Hmm..." His dad had remained silent through the entire story. "Well if you were to ask me I'd say it was a poltergeist."

"A poltergeist? I guess that would make sense considering the lamps grew faces, but how? And why would they attack us?"

"I'm not exactly sure either, but I think it would have something to do with PSI. Your great grandfather researched something like that so his journal might have so information. It should be in the basement."

"PSI? You mean like my powers? You don't think I could have done this on accident do you?"

"No I'm positive that's not it. Actually, this might be a good chance to train those powers."

"What do you mean?"

"Well recently there's bettereen some strange things happening all around America recently, so maybe you could travel and try to find the source. I trust you enough to make good choices by yourself, and besides it's summer vacation. If there was ever a perfect time to go on an adventure, it would be now.

"But dad I'm only 12! I wouldn't be able to survive by myself!"

"Your psychic powers would beg to differ. Mine have saved me more times then I can count and I know that if I can use them, then you can as well. Even if they're weak now you'll find yourself mastering them before you know it."

"... Well I guess it would be cool to travel the country, and we do need to buy new lamps and a new toaster. Ok, I'll go into town and see how I feel about it. I'll call you when I decide."

"That's all I ask. Oh but Ninten if you do decide to go, keep me updated. I want to hear about as much of it as possible."

"Ok dad, thanks. Goodbye."

"Love you son."

(Click)

"(How am I going to explain this to mom.)"


	2. Chapter 2: Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ninten learns more about PSI from a journal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going to be using {this} for animal talk.

"(I wonder if mom would even let me leave in the first place)". After talking with his dad on the phone, Ninten didn't know what to do. The basement was normally locked and he didn't know where the key was, so he couldn't get the journal his dad talked about, and then there was the whole traveling thing. While it would be awesome and he was curious as to what was happening everywhere else, but at the same time he didn't know how dangerous it would be. Then there was the issue of his mom and if she would even let him leave in the first place. He decided to tell her about what his dad said to see what her reaction would be. "Hey mom can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure thing sweetie, I'm in your room right now."

Ninten entered his room and saw that his mom had already cleaned up what was left of his lamp.

"What is it Ninten?"

"(Well now's probably the best chance I'll have)" he thought to himself as he hoped his mom wouldn't freak out.

"So, I just talked with dad about what happened and he said it was probably a poltergeist. The wierd thing is that apparently this stuff has been happening all over America recently.

"A poltergeist?" Ninten's mom was hesitant to believe this, but decided it was somehow logical. After all, a toaster doesn't just fly by itself. "Well I suppose if a boy can have psychic powers then it's possible for poltergeists to exist. Did he say anything else?"

And now for the part Ninten was dreading telling her. "Well, speaking of my powers, dad suggested that I actually travel around America and train them. I'm still not sure if I want to or not, but I was thinking about going into town to think about it and to see if there are more poltergeist attacks. (Ugh. I definitely could have been less blunt about it. I hope she doesn't freak out.)"

He waited for an answer as a silence filled the room. After a few seconds, his mom let out a sigh. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised your father recommended something like that. Besides you getting used to your powers would be a great thing". She said, with a bit of sadness in her tone. She already knew Ninten would make up his mind and leave soon, he was to much like his father to do anything else. But she couldn't help but worry about his safety if these things really were happening everywhere else. "But you should wait until morning before you go into town. I don't want you walking around when it's dark out."

"Yeah, I was definitely going to wait until morning, I just wanted to tell you about the traveling thing."

"Thank you sweetie, I promise I'll support you whether or not you stay." She kneeled over to hug her son, who eagerly hugged her back.

"Thanks mom." The hug continued for a good couple of seconds before he remembered what else he wanted to ask her. Oh mom, one more thing, do you know where the basement key is? Dad said great grandpa's journal was in there and it might know something about our stuff attacking us."

"Hmmm... Sorry but I don't remember where I put it. Maybe your sisters know?"

"Ok I'll go ask them, thanks again mom".

As Ninten went to Mimmie's room to ask about the key's whereabouts, she ran out the door and noticed him. "Oh! Ninten! Check this out!" She proceeded to drag the confused Ninten into her room as she picked up the doll that had attacked her earlier.

"Look!" To Ninten's surprise, she proceeded to pop off the dolls head.

"What? Why would you do that?"

"It was loose from when you slammed it against my dresser, but when I took it off I found this inside of it." She took small, blue music box from out of the dolls body. It was hardly the size of Ninten's hand, and it didn't have any decorations on it, but the most surprising part was how it had went unnoticed and hadn't made a sound from inside the doll the entire time they've owned the doll.

"A music box? How did that even get there?"

"It still works too. Listen to it."

After Mimmie has wound up the music box, a melody began to play. Even though it only lasted for a second, it was still calming and really nice, so Ninten remembered it.

"Wow, I'm surprised it still works. Have you shown mom?"

"Not yet, I was about to but then I saw you. Do you need something?"

"Oh right, ( I need to stop getting distracted so easily) do you know where the key to the basement is?"

"Nope, sorry. Did you check with mom?"

"No, she said to ask you and Minnie."

"Well maybe Minnie knows then, because I have no idea. I'm going to go show this mom. Good luck finding it".

As she ran to find their mom, Ninten walked over to Minnie's room, the mystery of the music box not leaving his mind. He decided to focus on the key, and knocked on Minnie's door when he could reach it.

"Hey Minnie can I come in?"

"What do you need bro?"

"Do you know where the basement key is?"

"Why do you need that?"

"I called dad about the lamps and he said great grandpa's journal in the basement might have answers."

"I don't know."

This wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but he couldn't get mad at his sister for not knowing where it was. "Alright, thanks."

"Bye"

"(Great I still have no idea where it could be)"

He decided to start looking for the key upstairs. After wasting thirty minutes trying to find it, Ninten gave up looking for it up there and headed downstairs, but quickly got distracted again by an amazing smell coming from the kitchen.

"Mom are you making ribs?"

"Of course. I thought it would be good to help take our minds off of what happened today."

Ninten loved his mom's prime ribs. He thought they where the best food to exist, so hearing this naturally made him happy. Of course he wasn't the only one that was happy, as the Mick, the family dog was patrolling the kitchen. Trying to get at least a tiny piece.

"So did have any luck finding that key?"

"No, I couldn't find it upstairs and neither of the girls knew where it was. Speaking of them, did Mimmie show you the music box she found?"

"What music box?"

"I guess she didn't. For some reason she found a music box inside her doll. It still works too."

"I'll have to ask her about it later. As for the key, maybe you should check in the couch cushions. Everything seems to find its way their somehow".

"{Key? What key.}"

Being psychic also meant that Ninten could understand animals, which honestly wierded his mom and sisters out at first but they got used to it. Of course being able to talk to Mick was incredibly useful as he saw was able to tell Ninten if his sisters where trying to be sneaky.

"Nothing boy I'm just trying to find the basement key"

"{I know where it is.}"

"You do?" Ninten said, surprised the dog knew what a key was in the first place.

"{Look on my collar. Your dad gave it to me. Something about "safekeeping."}"

Ninten slid Mick's collar off and sure enough, there was a key attached to it.

"What the… Hey mom the key was on Mick's collar for some reason."

"Really? I'll have to ask your father about that

"Thanks buddy"

"{No problem. You can thank me by giving me some of your ribs during dinner."}

"We'll see about that." He chuckled and gave the dog a pat on the head, then he walked over to the basement door.

Sure enough when Ninten used the key, it slid right into the lock and he was able to unlock the door. A short descent of stairs was on the other side. He walked down and found a light switch at the bottom, which he quickly flicked on. Thankfully a light in the center of the room flickered and stayed lit, illuminating the nearly pitch black room. It was obvious that nobody had been down there in ages, as just about every step he took kicked up dust. "(Sheesh I hope my asthma doesn't act up)"

While searching through the piles of junk to find the journal, he found an old but recognizable plastic baseball bat. "(Oh wow, I've always wondered where this thing went. How did it get here though? ... Whatever, I'm taking it.)"

[Got plastic bat]

Searching through the basement a little more, Ninten found his great grandpa's journal amoung some other wierd books he didn't have an interest in. It was just as dusty as the other things but he was able to make out the words on the front.

_Property of George_

The book was small, but it felt oddly heavy in Nintens hands. It was clear it had been untouched for a long time.

"(I'm pretty sure dad said grandpa's name was George, but why isn't his last name on it?)"

[Got GGF's diary]

Not wanting to kick up any more dust, Ninten left the basement and put the key back on Mick's collar, but not before locking the basement again.

"Did you find that journal sweetie?"

"Yea mom. I'm going to go upstairs and read this thing. Call me when dinner is ready." He replied hastily. He didn't know why but he felt drawn to the book.

He hurried upstairs and flopped down on his bed. Unfortunately most of the pages were gone and some of the letters had faded, but he could still make out some of it.

_Password_

... _The one who lost his tail_

 _The_ _forgotten_ _one_ ... _the_ _ship_ _that_ _sails_...

"(What the heck is this supposed to be? A password for what?)" He kept reading.

PSI techniques "(this looks interesting)"

_In my studies of PSI, I have discovered several things. There are a multitude of PSI abilities, more then I dare imagine. But one person is not capable of learning all of them. In my practicing I have noticed that I will go into a fever like state when I am about to learn a new technique, and then a voice will ring in my head with the name of said technique. However it is not until these events transpire that I am truly able to use a technique properly. Most of these abilities have certain levels to them, with each varying in intensity. However, a person is not able to cast these abilities whenever they feel like it. You must expend a certain amount of psychic energy to power these abilities, with the amount needed varying on the technique used. This energy replenishes naturally after a good nights rest, however I have discovered plants and other items that replenish this energy instantly. The following is the list of PSI I have discovered, as well as any notes on them._

_PSI Lifeup_

_This can miraculously close wounds, even as dire as broken bones. This one could surely be beneficial to healthcare._

_PSI Healing_

_This seems to cure sickness, unlike its counter part Lifeup. The highest level is even capable of reverting unconsciousness and even death itself should it be used in a short timespan._

_PK and PSI Shield._

_There are two variants to this one, with The PK variant protecting one from physical harm while a PSI shield can protect you from other forms of PSI_

_PK Fire_

_I have only managed to accomplish the first level of this one, but even the first stage has powerful results, with fire shooting right of my finger tips._

_PK Beam_

_I have only seen this one be used and unfortunately haven't been able to use it myself, but from what I have seen of this ability it is capable of devastation far beyond weapons of this time. A frightening power indeed_

_PSI Brainshock_

_Another ability I have not been able to perform. This ability seems to unleash some sort of trauma on the victims brain. I have seen the affects range from mild headaches to temporary insanity._

The book went on to list different methods of using and learning PSI, but unfortunately for Ninten the rest of the pages were destroyed. Still, the journal piqued his interest in his own abilities.

"(I wonder what powers I can use. The PK Beam one sounds super cool but the life up sounds really useful. Wait... how did he learn about those if he said he couldn't use them, who else could have known this stuff?)"

"Ninten! Dinners ready!"

Ninten went down to eat with his mom and his sisters. He wasn't missing his mom's ribs for anything.

"These smell amazing! Thanks mom."

"It's no problem sweetheart."

"So big bro, did the book say anything about floating lamps?" Minnie butted in, clearly extremely curious. Ninten decided not to say anything about the PSI stuff in the book.

"No, I couldn't even make a lot of it out. Most of the pages looked like they where torn out and a lot of the letters are faded now".

"Well lets not dwell on that. For now we should eat the dinner I prepared for us. I even made extra. "

And so the family ate. Ninten was still thinking about the journal what other PSI abilities there were, but remembered to give Mick a bit of rib like he asked for earlier. When they were done eating and in bed. Ninten was anxious about the next day, but had a surprisingly easy time falling asleep. His thoughts swirled about the mystery's his great grandpa's diary had presented before he shut his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s the second chapter. Hope you guys liked it. Any advice and/or criticisms are appreciated.


	3. Setting Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ninten leaves home and arrives in Podunk, but some trouble comes up along the way.

When Ninten woke up the next morning, the first thing he did was check for his great grandpa's journal to see if yesterday was a dream or not. When he found it next to his bed in place of his lamp, he got up, got dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast. His mom was already sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper.

"Hi mom." He headed over to the cupboard to get some cereal and a bowl.

"Good morning sweetie. Did you sleep well?"

"Considering what happened yesterday, I'd say I slept alright."

"That's good. You can't be half asleep if your going into town."

"Yeah, speaking of town, does the newspaper say anything about ghosts?" He was sitting down with a full bowl of cereal and had started eating away.

"That's why I'm reading it, but it doesn't say anything about poltergeist attacks."

"Wierd. Maybe there'll be something about it on TV later. (Dad said it's been happening everywhere. Why doesn't the news have anything?)"

The rest of breakfast was silent, with Ninten eating his cereal while his mom got up to wash her now empty cup. Ninten quickly finished and put his bowl in the sink.

"I'm going to go up and grab some things before I leave, ok mom?"

"Ok, just tell me before you leave."

He went upstairs and grabbed the back pack that has just been sitting in his room since school had ended. He decided to take the 20$ he had saved up and his cash card with him so he could replace the lamps he has smashed yesterday, and he also decided to the baseball bat he had found just in case he was attacked by anything else. Just as he was about leave however, he remembered the journal that was sitting next to his bed.

"(Should I really take that? ... Well I might need it for a PSI thing so, I might as well.") He grabbed the journal and put it in his backpack, then headed downstairs.

"I'll be back later mom. Love you."

"Please be careful out there Ninten. I don't want you to be hurt."

After giving his mom one more hug, Ninten went through the door and began the walk to Podunk.

"(I wonder what else is happening other then poltergeists. I doubt those are the only thi- what is that?)" Ninten couldn't even finish his thought before he noticed a line of blue charging at him.

[Snake drew near]

"(A snake? Why is there a snake hear? They aren't from anywhere nearby.)"

The snake tried to bite Ninten, but he managed to block it with his bat. Surprisingly enough the plastic didn't even bend.

[Snake's attack. 0 damage to Ninten]

"(Come to think of it I think I remember seeing this type snake at the zoo. I'm pretty sure it's not poisonous. At least I hope it's not poisonous.)"

Ninten shook the snake off the bat. The snake landed on the grass and was immediately wacked in the center.

[Ninten's attack. 7 damage to snake]

The snake tried to slither away, but Ninten delivered a quick kick before it got the chance, sending the serpent flying.

[Ninten's attack. 4 damage to snake]

When the snake recovered from being launched, Ninten was surprised to see that the snake just sat there (or at least the snake equivalent of sitting) and then just slowly slithered away.

[Snake became tame]

[YOU WIN!]  
"(O...k then. Why did it flee? What the heck is happening?)"

Ninten double checked to see if he got bitten by the snake without noticing. After checking himself and confirming he was unharmed, he continued to town.

"(I wonder what other PSI moves there are. There's no way the journal listed all of them.)" Ninten's thoughts trailed back to what his great grandfather's journal said about PSI. "( I really hope I learn some soon. Making fire anywhere I want would be awesome.)

As he continued down the road, Ninten saw his neighbor standing in front of her house seemingly pacing back and forth. He walked closer and began to hear her muttering to herself.

"Oh, what can I do? What should I do? Where can I go? I don't even know where she could have gone how will I find her?"

"Is something wrong Mrs. Lindgren?" Ninten swore he's never seen someone more distressed.

"Oh Ninten! Are you going into town?"

"Yes I am, what's wrong."

"Oh thank god! Pippi went out to play the other day but she hasn't come back! And she always comes back home before night time! Please you have to tell the mayor if your going to Podunk! I would but I'm to scared to go in case she comes home while I'm gone and I'm just so worried!"

"Yeah of course I will." Pippi played baseball with Ninten and his friends sometimes and was surprisingly good at it for a 7 year old, but other then that Ninten didn't actually see her that often despite being neighbors and, well he considered her a friend. He knew that she worried her mom with pranks a lot, but she would never go this far.

"Oh thank you so much! Oh god I hope she comes back soon."

Ninten continued to Podunk, leaving the distressed Mrs. Lindgren behind. He was almost there until he saw a man passed out on the ground.

"Ummm are you ok sir?

The man stood up with a hazy look in his eye and said.

"Whaaaaat. Who are you? Wait, your a cop aren't you. YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME!

[The hippie drew near]

"Wait what, dude! Calm down!" The hippie was clearly on something, and wasn't about to listen to reason.

"Get away copper!" The hippie tried to kick Ninten, but was to disoriented to actually hit him.

[Hippies attack. Just missed]

"What! That was my ultra mega super kick! You weren't supposed dodge that!

[Hippie flew into a rage. Offense went up by 11]

The hippie kicked Ninten again. This time it connected and hit him directly in the leg. It didn't break anything but it still hurt.

[Hippie's attack. 10 damage to Ninten]

Ninten was still hesitant to attack, but took a swing at the mans arm anyway.

[Nintens attack. 7 damage to hippie]

"Wait hold on a sec, I need to think about what to do"

Ninten was confused as to what this mean, but the man just sat down and folded his arms for a couple of seconds.

[The hippie meditated. Nothing happened]

"I got it!" The hippie pulled out a bullhorn from seemingly out of nowhere and yelled, "Go home Mr. Cop! Your mom's calling for you!"

[Hippie used bullhorn. It didn't work]

"(What? Why is he talking about my mom? Why would drag my mom into this!)"

[Ninten got angry at the hippie. Offense went up by 17]

Ninten charged at the hippie and delivered a blow with his bat.

[Ninten's attack. SMAAAASH! 25 damage to hippie.]

"Wha? What happened? Who are you little dude?"

[Hippie regained his senses]  
[YOU WIN!]  
Ninten was panting a bit, but still managed to say what he wanted.

"Are you going to stop now?"

"Stop? What are you- oh I didn't hurt you did I?"

"My leg hurts but I'm fine otherwise."

"Oh I am so sorry about that little man. Here, take this as an apology." The hippie handed Ninten the bullhorn he used earlier. He took it and put it in his bag.  
[Got bullhorn]

"Um, thanks."

"Least I can do bro. Catch you on the flip side."

The hippie proceeded to walk away without a care in the world, leaving a very confused Ninten behind.

"(What the heck just happened?)" Was all he could think to himself for a bit, but then he remembered his leg and checked on it. Sure enough, there was a giant bruise where he got kicked earlier.

"(Well that sucks. Wait, maybe I can fix it up.)" Ninten pulled out his great grandpa's journal to find the healing technique it spoke of. After finding it and reading how to use them, he attempted to get rid of the bruise.

"PSI Lifeup alpha!" Unfortunately nothing happened, so he tried again.  
"PSI Lifeup alpha!" Again, he was met with no success. He gave up after a few more tries.  
"(I guess I really do need to wait for some sort of fever if I want to use these abilities huh. I wish I knew how to trigger them but the book doesn't mention how it appears")

As Ninten thought more about PSI, he finally arrived in Podunk, where his first real threat would soon confront him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the bullhorn moment in the fight felt a bit forced, but I really wanted to include that. Any advice and/or criticisms are appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4: Strange Happenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ninten arrives in Podunk and learns about some interesting things happening.

"(I hope lamps and toasters aren't too expensive. I'd at least like to replace them before I go anywhere else)"

Ninten was thinking of a plan for when he got to Podunk. He wanted to try and replace the lamps at home since he felt bad for breaking them (despite it being in self defense), but he also wanted to replace the toaster his mom had to destroy. However he wound up getting so lost in thought, he didn't realize he had already reached Podunk until he had walked directly into a house.

"(Crap I hope nobody saw that!)" He hastily backed away and looked around. Thankfully it looked like nobody was looking in his direction.

"You ok there kid?" At least Ninten thought nobody was looking, but he turned to his left and saw a man with a concerned look on his face.

"Oh, um I'm fine just, i was thinking about a lot of stuff and... look, please don't tell anyone about this." Ninten said awkwardly. He hated embarrassing himself, and walking into something directly in front of him was something he wouuld never live down.

"Don't worry about it kid, your secrets safe with me. Not like everyone else doesn't have a lot on their minds lately."

"What do you mean?"

"You not from around here? The zoo animals have gone insane and the undead have been roaming around for the past couple of days. The entire town knows about it."

"Undead? As in ghosts and poltergeists?"

"Yeah, those and zombies.”

"Zombies?!" The mention of zombies overshadowed what the man said about the zoo. "I barely live far so how have I not heard about it? Did they just appear today?"

"The mayor's trying to keep the media quiet so the only way to know about it is to come down here. As for when, I think the zombies and ghosts first appeared first started showing up about 3 days ago. Pretty sure the animals going crazy was around the same time as well so they might be connected. "

"Three days... (I guess that makes sense. The poltergeist was only yesterday.)" Has anyone been attacked?"

"Nobody's been seriously hurt as far as I know, but there's been a lot of property damage." The man sighs and looks a bit sad for a second. "My house got destroyed the other day. Ghosts tore it apart while I was out."

"Ohhh... I am so sorry to hear that." Ninten didn't know how to respond to that. He decided not to bring up that his house was barely damaged when it got attacked.

"Eh, don't worry yourself about it. I'm still alive and I have a place to stay for the time being so I'm fine."

"Well, I hope it won't take you to long to find a new one." Ninten suddenly felt extremely awkward and decided it would be best to leave. "I'm, really sorry but I need to go somewhere."

"Oh, don't let me keep you. Stay safe out there kid."

Ninten walked deeper into town, thoughts swarming about what he just learnt. "(Wow, I really hope I don't have to fight any zombies. How did they even appear in the first place?)" After a bit more thinking about zombies, he decided to head towards the department store to see how much lamps and toasters cost.

As Ninten walked down to the store, he noticed that there wasn't a lot of people outside. He wasn't used to the town being this quiet. Despite the reason for the silence, he found it somewhat relaxing and arrived at the store within no time at all

The department store was a massive tower with a different variety of stuff on each floor. This made it really confusing if it was your first time shopping there and while it wasn't Ninten's first time shopping, it was his first time shopping alone. Normally whenever he went there, he had either his mom or his sisters with him to tell him where to go. Even then he only went to the floor with sports equipment, the toy store, the food area and the drug counter to get asthma spray. He had no idea where everything else was, so he went over to the clerk by the door or ask for help.

"Hi there, do you have something you would like to return?" She said cheerfully

"No I-" Ninten was about to respond with a no, but he then remembered the bullhorn the hippie had given him earlier. "Actually would I be able to return this?" He pulled the bullhorn out of his bag and handed it over.

"Hm..." the lady carefully inspected it. "We definitely carry this brand, and it seems to be in perfect condition. Do you have the receipt?"

"Sorry, I don't have it."

"Ok then. I can give you 5 dollars for it."

Ninten thought for a second if he would ever actually need it. "Ok, that sounds fair." He decided that the chances of him needing a bullhorn were to low to justify keeping it. He quickly pocketed the 5 dollars.

"Will that be all you need?"

"What floor has kitchen stuff and lamps?"

"Those would be on the third floor sir."

"Thanks, have a good day"

"Come back soon." Ninten proceeded to the stairs leading up to the third floor, hoping that he had enough money to afford something.

—-

"Thirty dollars for a lamp? (Wow I had no idea they where this expensive.)"

"Is there a problem with that sir?" The clerk was trying to smile, but was visibly tired and clearly bored."

"Um, are there any lamps that are less expensive?"

"Sir, anything cheaper would just be a lightbulb attached to a string."

"(Ugh of course) Ok, I'll just go then."

"Have a good day sir."

"(Well I guess I'm not replacing those. I don't even want to know how much a toaster costs)" Ninten left the store and headed down to the exit, However on the way down he overheard an intriguing conversation between a boy and a girl. He recognized them as Mat and Cindy from his school.

"Did you actually get bit by a zombie?"

"Yea. It hurt like hell but I punched the sucker so hard it crumbled to dust."

"How aren't you scared?"

"Of what? I got it checked out and other then the bleeding I'm fine"

"I mean scared of turning into one!"

"What? Nah, it was three days ago. If I was turning into a zombie I think I would have felt something by now."

Cindy continued to question Mat as Ninten listened from a distance. "(So you don't become a zombie if you get bit. That's good to know)" after a bit he decide to talk to them.

"Hey guys, what are you two talking about?

"Hmm? Oh hey Ninten. We're not talking about anything important, I ju-"

"What do you mean nothing important!" Cindy interrupted. "You got bit by some random zombie and we don't know if your going to turn or not! How is that fine?!"

"Again, I would probably feel sick by now if I was turning into a zombie. Anyway, a zombie got the jump on me the other day and bit my arm pretty good". He rolled up his sleeve to show Ninten and sure enough there were bite marks around the middle of his arm. Other then that though it didn't look like anything had happened to it.

"It looks fine to me."

"That's what I'm saying but Cindy here insists on being paranoid about it."

"I'm not paranoid, I'm worried! After all the zombie movies you've dragged me to how could I not be!"

Ninten decided to interrupt before she could start ranting "How did it happen?"

"It's not an exciting story honestly. 3 days ago I was walking home from my friends place when I saw this wierd looking dude just standing there with a giant coat on. I tried to walk past him but as soon as I did he jumped me and bit my arm. I managed to beat em up before it could try anything else. I haven't seen any since then but I'm pretty sure other people have, so I've been keeping an eye out."

"I still think we need you need to go to the hospital again check it again just in case. I'm not having my friend turn into a zombie because he "thought it looked fine" Cindy added as he finished his story.

Ninten wasn't paying attention anymore though, his thoughts racing back to Pippi.

"(Oh no what if she was attacked! She's strong but there's no way she would be able to fight off a zombie.)" He decided that he had to look for her, but not before telling the mayor first.

"Hey, it was great seeing you guys but I need to be going now. Maybe I'll see you later.

"See ya Ninten." They said in unison. Ninten made his way towards the exit of the department store. Fortunately for him the mayor's office was right next to the department store, so it took him no time at all to get there.

"Hello, can I help you?" Ninten walked through the door and was greeted by a yellowish white room and a blond secretary behind their desk.

"Can I see the mayor? It's about" Ninten was quickly cut off.

"Kid, the mayor is extremely busy right now. I'm afraid he's not accepting visitors." The secretary said in a very annoyed tone. It's clear she's had to say this a lot.

"Please ma'am it's really important."

"Kid, we've had a lot of people come in recently over something important". She replied, putting emphasis around the word important. "Most of the time it's just the news or someone asking what the mayor's doing about this. Chances are the mayor's not interested in what you got."

"Please just listen!" Ninten was starting to get annoyed. "My neighbor's been missing for the past 3 days now, and I think these zombies have something to do with it. Can I please just report that to the mayor, I promise I'll be quick." Ninten wasn't a fan of lying, but decided to bend the truth about the length of Pippi's absence to try and make it sound even more urgent. He added some desperation to his voice for good measure. His sudden outburst surprised the secretary for a second, but she quickly regained her composure.

"... Well you definitely seem serious about it, and a missing person would definitely classify as imortant. Go on up. It's the first door to the left."

"Thank you. I won't take long."

"Good luck finding your neighbor."

Ninten walked up the suprisingly long flight off stairs and headed left like the secretary said. Sure enough a door with the word mayor in large letters on the front was the first thing he saw. The room was the same color as the one downstairs, with chairs and a couch in the center of it. He noticed the mayor was getting up from one of them to greet the him.

"Who are you young man?"

"My name is Ninten sir. I'm here to report a missing person."

"Ninten?" He swore he could hear the mayor say something about "dumb nicknames" but unfortunately he talked to quietly for Ninten to understand. "I suppose it doesn't matter. What's this about a missing person?."

Ninten decided to ignore the stupid nickname part. "My neighbor, Pippi Lindgren, has been missing for the last couple of days now, and I think the zombies might be responsible. She's a 7 year old girl and her mom is worried sick about her."

The mayor appeared to be deep in thought at this. "Well, one of the zombie reports we got mentions a girl going near the cemetery.." Ninten's heart sank after he heard this. "(Oh crap if that person is Pippi... I just have to hope it's not.)" Well can't you send police officers there to investigate?"

"Well due to the matters of the zoo animals and the undead roaming around, I'm afraid our officers are tied up protecting the town."

"Can't you at least send one?! A little girl is in danger!" Ninten has never had the greatest opinion of the mayor, but the way the he was treating the situation was only lowering it.

"Now now, no need to yell." The mayor was still deep in thought, but suddenly his face lit up with an idea. "Well kid, how would you like to find her?"

"Wait, me?" Ninten was going look for Pippi anyway, but was confused as to why the mayor himself would suggest the idea as well. "Why me? Wouldn't it be better to send an adult?"

"Well like I said the police are to busy to help and you seem to be more then willing to help. Besides I'm sure the child would be more likely to trust her neighbor and friend, well I assume you two are friends, then some random cop. Not to mention that if this child doesn't return then my reputation would be horrible during the election. I'll pay you if that helps convince you.

While the mayor's true motivation was selfish and he was clearly making up excuses to send Ninten before anyone else, Ninten didn't care to much. Besides, the offer of money was to much for him to pass up. He only needed a bit more to at least buy his sister a new lamp, but if he was given enough he would be able to replace everything that was broken in the poltergeist attack. "Ok then, I'll do it."

"Wonderful! Bring her back alive and I- I mean You'll surely be a hero!" The mayor then sat back down in his chair. "Now good luck out there kid, I have paperwork to do."

Ninten left the mayor's room, but not before noticing another person behind a desk near the door. "(Has he been here the whole time? How didn't I notice him?)" Deciding not to think about it, he walked back down the stairs and left the building.

Wasting no time, Ninten immediately started heading south to the cemetery.

"Hey kid! You're not seriously going down to the cemetery are ya?" As Ninten was walking through the residential district, an elderly man approached Ninten with a dumbfounded look

"Sorry sir but I'm in a hurry. I don't know how much time I have."

"Ugh kids these days always being reckless. First that girl goes down and know you too.

"Girl?!" The man immediately had Ninten's attention. "(He might be able to tell me if it was Pippi or not.) What did she look like?"

"Hmm? Well she was short and had red hair tied up into pigtails. I tried to tell her it was dangerous but she didn't care. Zombies probably got her. They'll get you too if you go out there."

"Ok yeah thanks for the warning I really have to go now." Ninten took off as soon as the man was done talking. "(Crap it had to have been Pippi! She's the only one I know that fits that description!) He started sprinting to cemetery to save time, but as he reached the path he noticed two figures in very large jackets standing there.

"Hey thereee..." Said the first one

"What are youuu doing hereeee?" Said the other. Their speech was slow and the air around them smelled putrid, which was more then enough to set Ninten on edge.

"Hey, I just need to get to the cemetery. (There's something off about these guys)"He felt for his bat and held it behind him, just in case.

"The cemetery? Whyyy would a kid like youuu want to go thereee?"

"Um.. That's, none of your business. I'm just gonna go." Ninten remembered Mats story and how the zombie that attacked him also had a big coat, but zombies couldn't talk right?

"I'm afraid youuu aren't going anywhereee! A gutsy kid Like youuu would make a fiiinneee zombie!

[Psuedo zombies A and B attacked]

Turns out zombies could, in fact talk. The first figure suddenly lunged at Ninten and scratched him on the arm before he could react to the threat. His coat somehow flying off in the process.

[Psuedo zombie A's attack. 7 damage to Ninten]

Ninten stumbled backwards from the attack and tried to put some space between him and his attackers. Without the zombie's coat he could see its true appearance. It's skin was unnaturally pale and falling off, and it's bones where practically sticking out of it body. It's eyes where the worst part though, as they were nothing but red dots in an abyss of blackness. Ninten tried to charge at the zombie and swing at it with his bat, but he was paralyzed by fear. He may have known they were real, but seeing one up close was absolutely horrifying for him. The zombies noticed his hesitation and took advantage of it.

"Whats wrooong kid, you seem scaaared!"

The second zombie let out an unnatural shriek to intimidate him more and charged at Ninten, but tripped while doing so and only grazed him a little.

[Psuedo zombie B's attack. 3 damage to Ninten]

The zombie fell right next to Ninten. He snapped out of his fear induced state and delivered a hard bash to the zombies head.

[Ninten's attack. 12 damage to Psuedo zombie B]

"Behind youuu!"

However while his back was turned, the other zombie circled around and tackled him from behind, pinning him down.

[Psuedo zombie A charged at Ninten. Dealt 3 damage. Ninten couldn't move]

While he was pinned, the second zombie got up and bit him hard in the side, drawing a lot of blood.

[Psuedo zombie B bit Ninten. 17 damage dealt]

His entire body hurt, but Ninten recieved a rush of adrenaline and pushed off the zombie pinning him down while bashing off the one on his side. He then delivered another bash to the zombie that bit him while the other fell to the ground from being pushed off.

[Ninten's attack. 19 damage to Pseudo zombie B]

The zombie fell to the last blow, crumbling to dust. But at the same time, Ninten started to feel unusually hot, distracting him enough for the remaining zombie to crawl to him. Ninten barely managed to turn around before he felt a sharp pain in his leg.

[Psuedo zombie A bit Ninten. 15 damage dealt]

The zombie bit him in the leg, making it difficult to stand. Ninten kicked the zombie off of him with his good leg, and then started repeatedly bashing it everywhere with his bat before it could move again.

[Ninten's attack. SMAAAASH! 36 damage to Psuedo zombie. Psuedo zombie turned to dust]

[YOU WIN!]

Ninten could only sit down in disbelief as the adrenaline left his body. Unfortunately he wasn't used to intense pain, and without the adrenaline he was starting to feel the pain of his wounds more and more, Rendering him barely able to move. However just as he was about to yell for help, the heat dispersed from his body and a voice rang through his head.

_"(PSI Lifeup alpha)"_

_"(PSI Hypnosis alpha)"_

"(Wow, did I get hit in the head? Why am I- wait lifeup was the healing thing in the journal! Ok, I just have to do as the book said. Take deep breaths Ninten. You got this.)" He held his hand to the bite mark on his leg and repeated the name of the technique through gasps of breath.

"PSI lifeup alpha..."

His hands started to glow a faint green, and he held it against his wound. After a couple of seconds the wound started glowing as well and sealed itself backup as the pain faded away. The blood that was surrounding the bite also seemed to vanish. The only remaining sign of the battle were a couple of bite marks that were barely noticeable.

[Ninten tried PSI Lifeup α. Ninten recovered 28 HP]

"(Wow... this is, amazing.)" He quickly repeated the process with the other bite and his scratch marks. They too, closed up and disappeared.

"(I wonder what the hypnosis one does. It wasn't mentioned in the journal.)" Ninten continued to sit down for a minute, this time due to exhaustion instead of pain. After a quick break and mentally reminding himself to be on guard, he continued to the graveyard, praying that Pippi didn't suffer nearly as much as he did.


	5. Chapter 5: Grave encounters (There will be puns in these titles)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ninten makes his way to and reaches the cemetery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I really don't have much of an excuse other then the fact that I kept getting writers block and kept feeling lazy. I promise this won't happen often. Also, I would highly recommend reading chapters 1-3 again as I made a bit of changes to them. Hope you enjoy.

Ninten has never seen a bat in real life before, but he still knew they where nocturnal animals and didn't like to go near people. That's why he was surprised when he was attacked by three of them at once in broad daylight practically right next to town. He was even more suprised to see they were all a bright purple, and he was pretty sure bats weren't bright purple.

[Mr. Battys drew near]

"(Why are these the most normal things I've had to fight. Actually maybe the snake was better.)" Ninten tried to hit one of them with his own bat, but they were too fast and kept flying out the way.

[Ninten's attack. Missed]

One of the bats proceeded to charge at him, but this turned out to be a mistake as Ninten swatted it after it got to close.

[Mr. Batty A's attack. Just missed]

[Nintens attack. 10 damage to Mr. Batty A]

The bat flew back, thinking about what just happened. This only hurt it's little head even more.

[Mr. Batty A thought about the situation. Mr. Batty A was confused]

The other two bats saw what happened to their comrade, but decided to charge at Ninten anyway. Unfortunately they met with the same fate as Ninten smacked them both.

[Mr. Battys B and C attacked. Missed]

[Ninten swung wildly. 10 damage to Mr. Battys B and C]

"(Wow, these guys really aren't that threatening. Maybe I can try that other PSI I learned.)" Ninten held his hand towards the bats like the book said, and said the other words that had gone through his head earlier.

"PSI Hypnosis alpha."

[Ninten tried PSI Hypnosis α. Nothing happened.]

A soft, purple light left his hand and hit one of the bats, however it didn't seem to affect them in anyway. The bats didn't even seem to notice the light.

"(Wierd, why didn't that one work.)" He decided to ignore the failed attempt and took a defensive stance so he could counter the bat's charges again. However, the first one he attacked charged at its friend instead of Ninten.

[Mr. Batty A is so confused. 4 damage to Mr. Batty C]

This started a fight between the two bats, and they wound up completely ignoring Ninten completely, leaving him dumbfounded. He was so distracted by the ongoing scuffle that he forgot about the third bat, which flew directly at him.

[Mr. Batty B's attack. 3 damage to Ninten]

The attack barely hurt, and Ninten quickly responded with another swat, causing the bat to fly away.

[Nintens attack. 11 damage to Mr. Batty B]

[Mr. Batty B flew away.]

"(Alright, where are the other two.)" Ninten looked over to see that the other two bats where still fighting each other. Feeling that there really wasn't a point to beating them up as well, he decided to leave them alone and walked away.

[Ninten ran away]

"(I really hope the graveyard will be this simple. I'd rather not get bitten by more zombies.)" The rest of the walk to the graveyard was uneventful other then the fact that the sounds of fighting bats hung in the background, but Ninten couldnt help but check his bite wounds every few minutes. Thankfully, they didn't seem to be getting worse, but Ninten wanted to keep an eye on them. Even though Mat got bit a few days ago and was still fine, Ninten was still anxious about the possibilities. It wasn't long before he came across a fork in the road with a sign directly next to it. It read "Healer house left. Cemetery straight ahead."

"(Whats a healer house? Well I guess its in the name, but whats the difference between that and a hospital? Though... whoever lives there might know something about these zombies. Besides, its not like I don't have a baseball bat and PSI if things go south.)" Throwing caution to the wind, he decided to investigate the so called "healer house". Thankfully it wasn't far from the sign, so it didn't take long at all for Ninten to arrive at a suprisingly normal looking house. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

(knock knock knock)

...

"Oh! A visitor!" A voice came from the other side of the door, as well as several footsteps. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal a man with distinctly blue hair.

"Why hello their young man. What do you need?" The man was only slightly taller then Ninten, and he even had a blue mustache to go with his hair. He seemed friendly enough, but for some reason Ninten kept feeling an odd tingling sensation around him.

"Umm, I was just wondering what this place was. I mean, the sign said this was a healer house but I have no idea what that means." Ninten was still hesitant to trust strangers after the zombies from earlier, but nothing really felt off about the man other then the tingling.

"Ah, your first time hear? Well come in and I'll explain." The man beckoned Ninten inside, and while still hesitant, he obliged. The inside of the house was also normal looking, with the most odd thing in the room being the various herbs on the kitchen counter,

"Please, have a seat." The man pointed to a table relatively close to the door. Ninten sat in one of the chairs and kept an eye on the man, who seemed to be taking some of the herbs from the counter.

"Now, what I do here is treat the more uncommen ailments that hospitals tend to ignore, such as poisening or paralysis. I assure you the hospital knows of my existence, they just don't shut me down because I'm not taking patients from them." The man said, now sitting across the table from Ninten.

"(I, guess that makes sense.) And you use those herbs to treat them, right?"

"Well, the herbs help, but I actually use PSI for most treatments."

"PSI! You know PSI?!" This statement made Ninten's eyes light up. "What can you do?"

"Why yes I do, and I can use a sort of healing technique that simply removes the ailments from the body, the herbs are to replenish energy and treat potential side effects." The man paused for a second "And if I'm correct, you have this power as well."

"(That must be PSI Healing that was mentioned in the journal) Yeah, well I don't have the healing powers you mentioned but, I'm a psychic. How did you know?"

"An excellent question. You see, it's not often but I have occasionally run into other psychics with healing abilities on par with mine. Whenever I'm near one I feel this sort of tingly feeling, it goes away after a while but it's a tell tale sign of another psychic."

"(So that's what the tingling feeling is!)" Ninten had a ton of other questions he wanted to ask the man, but decided to cut things short as he still needed to rescue Pippi. "So, this is a wierd question, but you wouldn't happen to know anything about the zombies would you?"

"Ugh, the zombies." The mans face turned sour. They never go near my house thankfully, but they keep botheribg me whenever I try to get into town. Why do you ask?"

"My friend was taken by them, so I'm going to save them. I was just wondering if you knew anything about them." Ninten said with determination.

"You are? My what a brave young lad. I'm afraid I don't have any advice about them, but I do have these." The man handed Ninten the herbs he had taken from the counter earlier. They where a bright bluish green color, and had fairly sweet scent. "These herbs are what I use if I need extra of psychic energy. I may not know what powers you have, but you'll need them if your going to help your friend."

"Thank you! These will help a lot." Ninten graciously accepted the herbs and put them into his bag.

[Got 2 Magic herbs]

However a new thought crossed his mind as he was about to leave. "How much do I owe you?"

"You don't owe anything. I'd hate to charge a kid with such a noble mission, and I can spare a couple of herbs. Still though, you should probably hurry and find your friend before anything happens to them.

"Thank you again sir, I really appreciate it." Ninten got up from the table and ran to the door.

"Good luck kid." The man got up and went over to the counter with the other herbs as Ninten left.

As Ninten passed the sign and sprinted to the graveyard, he kept his eyes open for more bats or zombies. He had never needed to go to the graveyard before, but he had heard from his classmates that it's incredibly creepy no matter what time it is. As he got closer he was able to see what they meant, as all of the trees in the surrounding were completely bare of leaves despite it being in the middle of summer. Soon he came across the giant gate that signified the entrance. It was wide open, but nothing seemed to be nearby. Ninten pulled out his bat in preparation and proceeded through.

"(I really hope I find Pippi soon. I don't want to stay here for long.)" The atmosphere of the graveyard was scarier then any horror movie he had watched. The sight of graves everywhere was extremely unsettling, and the fact that he could only hear the occasional gust of wind didn't help his nerves. But he couldn't leave until he found Pippi, so he ignored the instincts that were screaming at him to run and kept exploring. While he was staring at a tree that had fallen through a wall though, he saw something move in the corner of his eye.

"(Crap what was that!)" He quickly turned in the direction he saw movement and spotted what could only be described as a bad Halloween decoration. It was a strange, purple ghost that was barely as tall as his torso, but the fact that it looked just like floating bed sheet with a goofy smile made it hard to take seriously. As soon as Ninten noticed it, it started laughing historically.

[Ghost drew near]

"(Is, this thing even hostile?)" Ninten stared at the ghost for a bit as it continued laughing. Suddenly it stopped, flew closer to him, and started laughing harder.

[Ghost started laughing. Nothing happened]

Ninten was dumbfounded, but decided to ignore the ghost as it seemed to be harmless. However just as started walking away it smacked him on the back of his head with its tiny hands.

[Ghost's attack. 5 damage to Ninten]

"Hey, what the heck!" Ninten turned around to see the ghost was laughing even harder. "(Alright, you asked for it.)" He took the opportunity to smack the ghost across the face. Surprisingly enough the bat actually made contact with it instead of phasing through.

[Ninten's attack. 12 damage to Ghost]

The ghost wasn't expecting any retaliation, and gave a yelp of suprise as it was smacked. It flew away before Ninten could hit it again.

[Ghost ran away]

"(Stupid ghost, it better not try that again.)" He continued to search the graveyard while grumbling to himself. Thankfully, the remaining ghosts in the area saw what happened and avoided him. He searched the entire graveyard without interruption, but only to find that Pippi wasn't there. However, in the last place he looked he came across a piller with a hole in front of it and a ladder leading downwards.

"(How did this get here? Maybe the zombies use it as base, but can they even use ladders?)" He tried to look down the hole, but it was pitch black. He thought about yelling down it to see if Pippi was there, but decided that would only alert the zombies he was coming if they didn't already know. "(Well she's not anywhere up here, so this might be my best bet.)" His instincts were now practically begging him to leave, but he ignored them and climbed down the ladder.

It was a suprisongly short climb down into what seemed to be a cave, but that didn't make it any less dark. In the darkness, Ninten could barely make out a narrow passageway and nothing else. "(Why'd It have to be so dark down here.)" He walked through the passage, which seemed to travel even farther down into the earth until it finally ended at a mysterious room illuminated by torches with four coffins scattered around. The coffin on the other side of the room was shaking occasionally while the other three remained ominously still.

"(Maybe Pippi's hiding in one of these. It's not like there's anywhere else to look down here.)" He opened the coffin that was closest to him, but there was nothing inside of it. In fact none of the still coffins had anything in them, meaning the only one remaining was the coffin that was starting to shake even more aggressively. "(I... might as well open it. I can probably defeat whatever's in there, and if it's Pippi we can leave this freaking graveyard.)" He cautiously approached the now violently shaking coffin and took the lid off. Another force pushed from inside and after the lid came off, a shape stepped out and stared at Ninten. It's hair was an orangish reddish color, and was split into two pigtails. Of course, there was only one person he knew with that type of hair.

"Pippi?"

It took less then a second for him to confirm that the shape was, in fact Pippi. Other then a tear in her skirt and some dirt on her face, she seemed fine at a glance. But there was definitely something off about the way she was blankly staring at Ninten.

"Umm, Pippi? It's me, Ninten. Are you ok?" He got closer to her to see if she was hurt at all.

"RARGH!"

[Pippi drew near]

All of a sudden she let out what could only be called a war cry and charged at Ninten with a punch. He wasn't prepared for this and took the full force of the attack to his stomach.

[Pippi's attack. SMAAAASH! 15 damage to Ninten]

Ninten stumbled back, the punch knocking the breath out him.

"Huff... (What the heck is wrong with her? Ok, I should probably use life up, that really hurt.)" He held his hand to his stomach while he watched Pippi, who was now glaring at him with hostility in her eyes.

"PSI Lifeup alpha." Just like the first time he used it, his hand emitted a soft green light that covered the area he was punched. It even spread to the other areas he got hurt earlier.

[Ninten tried PSI Lifeup α. 23 HP Recovered to Ninten]

The soreness from the punch had disappeared, and Ninten directed all of his attention to Pippi, who was still staring at him with a hostile look. "(Crap what do I do, I can't really take her home if she keeps attacking me like that.)" She seemed to only attack him if he got close, but he had to get close if he wanted to help her, unless... His eyes suddenly widened.

"(Maybe that hypnosis PSI will work!)" He held his hand towards Pippi and after regaining his breath, used the technique he hoped would have some sort effect.

"PSI Hypnosis alpha!"

The purple light that he had summoned against the bats appeared once again and was shot towards Pippi. It hit her directly in the face, but other then the light looking pretty nothing seemed to happen.

[Ninten tried PSI Hypnosis α. But nothing happened]

"(Seriosly? Why won't it work.)" He was about to try again, but the PSI must have triggered something in Pippi because she suddenly started running at him again with her fists clenched up. Thankfully he was prepared for the attack this time and blocked her next punches with his arm.

[Pippi's attack. 7 damage to Ninten. Continuous attack, 8 damage to Ninten]

"(Sorry Pippi.)" Seeing no other choice, he smacked Pippi in the arm with his bat. It wasn't a hard swing, but it got her to back away.

[Ninten held back. 5 damage to Pippi]

Pippi tried to get close to punch him again, so Ninten readied his bat for another swing. Unfortunately though Pippi ducked right as he swung, and was hit in the head.

[Ninten's attack. 12 damage to Pippi]

"Wait, No! I didn't mean to!" Pippi fell backwards in a sitting position while Ninten started to panick. "(Crap! Why did she duck then! Ok Ninten, deep breaths, you can fix this.)" He held his hand to cast lifeup on her, but before he could use it Pippi started blinking slowly and she stared at him with a confused and slightly dazed look.

"N-Ninten? Is that you?"

[Pippi regained her senses]

[YOU WIN!]

Ninten let out a sigh of relief at this remark. "(Thank god she's back to normal) Are you ok? I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Hurt me? Why are you acting weird? What happened?" She replied as she looked around, clearly confused as to what has happened. "Where are we anyway?"

"You don't remember? Umm, (Crap how do I explain this.) your mom said you didn't come home after you went out yesterday, so I went to look for you after telling the mayor. Do you remember what happened?"

"I..." She seemed to be thinking hard about what happened. "Oh yeah! I was playing in the graveyard when these two weirdos tried to grab me. I punched one of them super hard!" She punched the air to emphasize this. "But I don't remember anything after that. Now why are you asking if you hurt me?"

"(Well she's just as energetic as normal.) Well... I found you in this cave in the graveyard, but you tried to attack me when I found you. I may have hit you in the head, on accident of course." He rubbed the arm she had punched earlier. "Also you're really good at punching, now are you sure you can't remember anything else? Was it zombies that attacked you?"

"Zombies?" Her eyes suddenly lit up as she completely forgot about the injury question. "Yeah they were zombies! I just remembered! They took me down here and put me into that box thing after they grabbed me!" She pointed to the coffin Ninten found her in. "After that I don't remember anything though, did you find them to?"

"Yeah, they attacked me to. I beat them up though, so don't worry about them."

This seemed to dissapoint her. "Aww... really? I wanted to do that."

"(That's a wierd thing to complain about.) Well, don't worry about. I doubt you could beat them anyway if they got you the first time."

"Yeah, well if you help me I'd totally be able to take them!" She started getting pouty, so Ninten decided to change the subject.

"How about we talk about this after I get you home. Your mom's worried sick about you and I'd rather not stay down here any longer."

Pippi stopped pouting as she heard this. "Ok, I'm hungry anyway. Do you have any food?"

"Uhh" Ninten remember the two herbs he had gotten from the man earlier. "(I doubt those would help hunger. Actually, I should probably eat one of them. I did use a lot of PSI today.) No, sorry."

"Really? All right then." She responded disappointedly. She got up to exit the room before Ninten stopped her.

"Wait, you should stay behind me. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Nah, I'll be fine." She responded in a nonchalant manner as she pulled out a slingshot from her pocket. "I can defend myself."

"Well at least stay close to me then." He said as he approached the room's exit. Thankfully, she nodded and only strayed a few steps ahead of him. On the way out, he ate one of the herbs while Pippi wasn't looking just in case he needed his PSI. It was extremely bitter at first despite its sweet scent, but after a few seconds it started to taste a lot like mint.

[Ninten used Magic Herb. Restored 15 HP. Restored 21 PP]

It didn't take long for them to climb out of the hole, and Ninten was never more happy to see sunlight then that moment. The graveyard still felt just as creepy, but not being alone definitely helped. He decided to ask Pippi something on his mind to try and ignore the silence.

"So Pippi, why did you come down here in anyway?"

"To play. I come down here all the time."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I love exploring down here, and it's not scary to me. Is it scary to you?

"I mean, I'm not scared, but it's a creepy place."

"Hah! I'm braver then you are!"

"Pippi, that's not bravery. And I just said I wasn't scared."

The conversation continued until they reached the exit of the graveyard, but something was already waiting for them.

"Heh heh heh, well if it ain't the kid that offed my last two men. And the brat's with him to."

The sudden voice took the Ninten by suprise as he held his bat in front of him and looked at the figure that had come out of hiding. It was another zombie, but this one was bigger then the other two he fought, and it spoke just like a normal person. It wore a fedora, a brown coat and brown pants with a light brown undershirt and comedic red shoes. After looking closely, Ninten could see bloody holes in its chest area, presumably how it died in the first place.

"Pippi, stay behind me." He whispered so only she could hear him. "Who are you? Are you the zombies leader?"

"Right you are kid, and you took out my last men, so I'm gonna return the favor!" The zombie flashed a mean smile at Ninten.

"(Last men?) What do you mean last men? Did you only have two other zombies?"

"I had five others kid, but they were offed when we tried to get capture people to join. So now I have to do things myself."

"(So that's why they were attacking the town.) But we don't turn into zombies, how does that work. (Maybe I can district it long enough for Pippi to run)".

"I thought you would've figured it out, but the coffins you found are brainwashing devices. That girl you rescued would only have been halfway through the process right now, which is why I really don't appreciate you ruining everything! Now when I'm done with you, I'm gonna lock both of you in them until you obey, then I'm gonna rule this town just like when I was alive!"

[Gang zombie attacked]

The zombie charged at Ninten, who had gotten into a defensive position during its monologue.

[Gang zombie's attack. 14 damage to Ninten]

The blow hurt, but Ninten retaliated with a smack to the leg and backed away. He glanced around to check on Pippi and thankfully it looked like she had ran away.

[Ninten's attack. 10 damage to Gang Zombie]

"Heh, not bad kid. That strength will help me a lot when you're under my control!" The zombie then charged again, but this time it was much faster and kicked at Ninten's legs, tripping him.]

[Gang zombie's attack. 11 damage to Ninten]

He tried to get up and put some distance between him and the zombie, but it scratched him across the arm as he backed away.

[Gang zombie's attack. 15 damage to Ninten]

"(Hopefully I can pull this off.)" Ninten held his hand on his arm and yelled before the zombie could charge at him again.

"PSI Lifeup alpha!"

[Ninten tried PSI Lifeup α. Ninten recovered 31 HP]

He looked back to the zombie and braced himself, but it just stood there in shock as Ninten's arm healed.

"Your... well I thought they were the only ones" The zombie seemed dumbstruck by this, but Ninten had no idea what it was talking about.

"Who's they?" He asked warily. He stayed in his defensive position as he hoped to learn more.

"None of your business kid, you'll meet them soon enough!" The zombie snapped out of its awestruck state in an instant and charged at Ninten again. It was met with a baseball bat to the leg, but it managed to grab ahold of Ninten.

[Ninten's attack. 8 damage to Gang zombie]

[Gang zombie's attack. 7 damage to Ninten. Ninten couldn't move]

"That hurt kid, but I'm top dog for a reason! Now get ready for- OWW!" The zombie suddenly dropped Ninten as it clutches the back of its head in pain. Ninten quickly got up and looked behind the zombie to see Pippi was aiming her slingshot at it.

"Get away from him you smelly... you jerk!"

[Pippi's attack. 9 damage to to Gang zombie]

"You little brat! You're gonna- OWW!" The zombie was interrupted again as Pippi had already loaded another shot and fired it at the zombie.

[Pippi's attack. 7 damage to Gang zombie]

Since he was now forgotten thanks to the distraction, Ninten got a solid grip on his bat and hit the zombie as hard as he could in the head.

[Ninten's attack. SMAAAASH! 24 damage to Gang zombie]

The zombies head came flying off as it's body slumped over on the ground, crumbling to dust. Soon there was nothing where the advisory once stood.

[Gang zombie turned to dust]

[YOU WIN!]

"I told you I could fight!" Pippi ran over to Ninten with a proud look on her face. "We kicked that things but!"

"Yeah, thanks Pippi. That distraction made things a lot easi- urk!" The lifeup he has used during the fight wasn't enough to fix him up completely, as his leg started to hurt again where the zombie had kicked him.

"Hey Pippi, if I show you something, will you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Of course!"

"(I hope she keeps that promise.)" He healed the rest of the damage he had sustained from the battle as Pippi watched with awestruck eyes.

"PSI Lifeup alpha."

[Ninten used PSI lifeup α. Ninten recovered 16 HP]

"Wow... That's so cool! How did you do that?!"

"To make a long story short, I've had these powers for a while. Promise me you won't tell anyone and I'll tell you more."

"I promise! Pinky Promise! I can't believe you have super powers! What else can you do?" She was clearly amazed by the revelation.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, Ok? I need to get you home."

"Ok then!" She headed to the road that lead to podunk as Ninten followed closely. Little did he know that this was only the beginning of what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors notes: I wanted to give the Gang zombie a bit more backstory, but I couldn't figure out how to do that without it feeling awkward, (honestly I'm still worried it feels like that) So I'll just include that and a couple of other things here.
> 
> The Gang zombie was a mob boss that practically ruled America, but was killed and buried in the podunk cemetery. He was revived with 5 other zombies for henchmen by some unknown force (though we all know what it is) and was given mind control devices. He wanted to rule like he did in the good old days, but Ninten and Pippi stopped him. Speaking of them...
> 
> Ninten and Pippi have been friends since before the story started like chapter three stated. There not best friends, but they still like each other. (Not in a weird way).
> 
> The Pippi fight was inspired by her unused combat sprite in the game that's titled Gang zombie. If you hack the game to fight it, it just says they regained their senses instead of turning to dust like all the other zombies, meaning you might have had to fight a mind controlled Pippi in the game at one point. I liked this idea and wanted to include it.
> 
> Thats it for now, I hope you guys look forward to the next chapter. And please leave a comment of your thoughts so far.


	6. The second melody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ninten reports to the mayor about the zombies and gets a new objective, but not before he finds something very important.

The walk to the back to town was uneventful as Pippi thankfully didn't ask Ninten any more questions about his PSI. As they entered the town once more, Ninten noticed that it felt slightly more safe despite the fact it was still silent. Hopefully that meant the defeat of the gang zombie had stopped the poltergeist attacks.

Once they reached the office, the secretary glanced at him and pointed towards the staircase to signify that the mayor was still up there. He proceeded upstairs without a word as Pippi followed. The mayor was half asleep in his chair as they entered, but woke up as soon as he heard the door close.

"Ah, you're back! I assume this is the missing girl, Pippi was it?"

"Yes sir. She was taken by the zombies, but I got her out of the cemetery unharmed." Ninten said in as much of a polite manner as he could.

"Capital work young man! I knew you would do your civic duty." The mayor was beaming as he said this. "Perhaps you could help us with another issue as well."

"Uhhh.. What do you mean?"

"Well you've heard about the situation with the zoo animals, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I think I have." He remembered the man he had talked to earlier mention them, but everything else he had heard was about the zombies.

"Great, so I don't need to go into detail. Abbot here will give you the key to the zoo, so if you could do this for me- I mean for the town, then we would surely be indebted to you." He pointed to the person sitting at the desk while he gave Ninten a hopeful smile.

"Why me? I thought the police were investigating it."

"Well... Out officers aren't at the zoo per se, rather they're tracking down all the escaped animals. That's why I want you to go their. You've proven yourself to be capable." The mayor's proposal was definitely strange, but Ninten couldn't help but ponder it. Sure, this time nobody he knew was in direct danger (at least as far as he was aware), but the zoo would probably be less dangerous then zombies. And besides, he might be able to get more money from this.

"Ok, I'll do it. But I want more pay."

"Hmm? Oh, of course! I wouldn't ask for something like this to go unpaid. Now run along kid, I'll escort little Pippi home."

"Wait a minute, I want to come with you!" Pippi was scowling as she said this.

"Pippi, it would be better for you to go home now." I promise I'll tell you more about the secret tomorrow, ok?" He held out his hand to signify what he was talking about.

"Fiiiiiine, but you better not forget!" She seemed like she was about to say more, but before she could the mayor's assistant approached Ninten with something in his hand.

"Here's the key to the zoo young man. You can do what you like with it when you're done, we have plenty."

Ninten put the key in his backpack as Abbot went back to his desk. He then proceeded to leave the building, leaving a slightly salty Pippi behind.

"Hey kid, you're going up to the zoo right?" Just as he was about go through the door leading outside, the secretary stopped him. She still spoke in a professional manner, but she was noticeably less aggressive then the last time he talked to her.

"Yeah I- wait how did you know that?"

"It's a part of my job. Anyway I would suggest going to the pet store if you're looking for information about the zoo. They've been having the same problems with their animals to and they might be able to help you. It's on the 2nd floor of the department store in case you didn't know."

Despite how obvious it sounded, Ninten didn't actually think to ask the pet store about the zoo animals. He thanked the secretary for the advice as he left the building and began the short walk back to the department store.

Ninten had been to the pet store regularly to get dog food or something else for Mick when his mom was to busy. However he always liked looking at the other animals, and he'd normally stay there a couple of minutes before leaving to pet the cats or watch the fish. This visit was different though, because instead of being greeted by the sounds of animal cries, he was greeted with nothing but silence as the only other living things there were the fish and the two cashiers that day, Clark and Vivian. Both of them seemed to be playing some sort of card game until one of them saw Ninten enter.

"Hey Ninten, nice to see you." Clark smiled, but was clearly upset about something. "Sorry, but unless your here to get dog food there's really nothing to do here."

"Wow... What happened to all the animals?" When the secretary mentioned that the store was having animal troubles, he didn't think that meant they had all escaped.

"Yeah, a couple of days ago the guys that came in to open the store found the entire place almost completely empty. The only animals that remained were the fish."

"Don't forget that bird from yesterday." Vivian added without looking away from her cards.

This took Ninten by suprise, as he had never seen any birds for sale at the store. "I thought the store didn't handle birds though. Shouldn't it be at the Canary Village?"

"It should be, but some shady looking dude just left it here instead. He didn't even have it in a real cage. We tried giving it a better one, but it won't let us touch it. He paused for a second as he stared at what appeared to be nothing. "You wanna see it? You always seem to have a way with animals, maybe it'll like you."

Of course nobody other then his family knew that Ninten's "way with animals" was because of his psychic powers, and he wasn't about to tell that to anyone else (besides Pippi of course). "Sure, it'd be cool to see a bird up close. Where is it?"

"Follow me, don't touch my cards Vivian." Vivian gave a grunt of acknowledgement as Ninten was led to a corner of the shop. A container stood on a table with a small bowl of food and water set out. A tiny, yellow bird sat in the corner, staring at the newcomers with sadness in its eyes.

"The poor little guy has just been huddled in the corner since yesterday. I can't even tell if it's eaten anything."

"You didn't mention it was a baby." Ninten said as he looked at the chick. "(Maybe I can take it back to the village. It wouldn't be much of a detour.)"

"I didn't? I thought I did, well that's the other reason we can't move it. It might freak out and hurt itself if we force it, and I don't want to risk that."

"Yeah... Hey, can you leave me alone with it? It might be nervous because there's two of us." Again this wasn't a complete lie, but it was the most Ninten wanted to say.

"Sure thing, I'll be at the counter if you need me." Clark walked away, leaving Ninten with the bird. After double checking to make sure he wasn't nearby, Ninten started gently speaking to the bird.

"Hey little guy, are you ok?" The bird remained silent as Ninten spoke. "You can talk to me, I won't hurt you."

"{Go away, I just want to go home.}" Like with the other animals he's talked to, a voice echoed from the bird.

"I can take you home, you're from the canary village right?" The little bird seemed to perk up slightly as it heard this.

"{I... I think I am. There are a lot of trees and a lot of other birds there.}" It's voice grew less shaky as it described it's home.

"Yeah, that's the canary village. I know where it is, so do you want me to take you? I'll let you ride in my cap." He took off his baseball cap to emphasize this, releasing his messy, black hair.

"{Ok, I'll go with you.}" Ninten slowly lowered his hat into the container and the bird climbed into it. It sat down as Ninten held the hat like a bowl.

"I just have to tell the employees that I'm taking you, and then we'll head straight to your home, ok?"

"{Ok, but please hurry.}"

Back at the check out counter, Clark was getting his head handed to him in Poker. After losing for what was possibly the seventh time that day, he noticed Ninten walking towards them with his hat held in front of him. It wasn't odd at first, but it didn't take long for him to notice the bird riding inside of it.

"Hey nice going, it seems to like you!"

"Uh huh, I'm gonna take it to the canary village. Do I have to pay you guys anything?"

"Nah, it's not like your keeping it. If anything it's probably just going home." He glanced down at the chick, which seemed to be ignoring him. "Thanks for doing this Ninten, it's a huge weight off my back." He gave Ninten a thumbs up as he left, leaving the two to start a new round of poker.

The canary village was a bird refuge that despite its name, didn't only keep canarys. Anybody was allowed admission as long as they didn't disturb any of the birds, and it was normally pretty noisy due to all of the chirping. That's why Ninten was suprised when he was greeted by dead silence as he approached the entrance.

As he walked around the village to try and find a place he could drop off the bird, he noticed that all of the other birds seemed to be ignoring him. After wandering around the sanctuary for a bit, he thankfully found the owner.

"Umm, excuse me sir? I found this chick and I was wondering if it belonged here." Upon closer inspection, the man seemed to have been crying as his eyes were practically swollen shut.

"O-oh hello there-" The man turned around to look at Ninten, but did a double take as soon as he saw the bird. "Oh my goodness it's Laura's chick! Young man where did you find them?"

"Wait, this bird is Laura's baby?" Laura was the first bird that took residence in the village, and was pretty much the entire reason it was named the canary village, so hearing that the bird was her child was a bit surprising. "Someone had apparently brought them to the pet shop, so I thought I would bring them here."

"They just went missing yesterday and we've all been so worried! Could you please take them to Laura? She should be by the white piller up north."

Sure enough, Laura was sat directly in front of the piller the owner was talking about. The little bird practically jumped out of Ninten's hat at the sight of its mom.

"{Mommy!}"

"{My child? It's really you!}" Laura stood to embrace her child as it ran up to her. She protectively covered the child with her wings as it nuzzled against her chest.

During the embrace, Laura started singing a melody as her child continued to nuzzle against her. It was only a few notes long, but that didn't make it any less pleasant or catchy. However in the back of his mind, he swore he could here another voice.

" _(PSI Healing alpha.)"_

"{Boy, thank you so much for finding my child. They wandered off the other day and never came back. I was worried I would never see them again.}"

"I'm... glad I could reunite the two of you." Watching the motherly care Laura displayed for her check made Ninten think of his own mom. Would she be really be ok if he left to travel like his dad said? She said that she would support him no matter what he did, but Ninten couldn't help but feel like she was covering up how worried she would be.

"(I should think about this later. I still have the zoo to look at.)" After doing his best to suppress the thoughts, he bid farewell to Laura and the Chick as he left the village. The other birds were much less cold towards him and serenaded him with beautiful chirping as he left.

Thankfully the zoo was only a short walk away from the village, so it didn't take Ninten to long to arrive there. As he approached the entrance however, was met with the unusual sight of a monkey standing directly in front of the gate. It stared at him as he approached.

"(Weird, it doesn't seem to be hostile)" Ninten got close to the monkey and despite all the warnings he's heard about getting near random animals, he stuck his hand out to scratch its head. It grunted in delight, but it didn't move out of the way. "(Whatever.)" He ignored the monkey after this and peered into the zoo to see what animals were still in there.

Just like the pet shop, it seemed like almost every animal was gone. Unlike the pet shop though, most of the enclosures were broken with scratch and bite marks scattered along them, which made Ninten more then a little nervous. It didn't help that he could see red stains in the grass as well.

"(Crap maybe I should have thought this through. I could barely handle a couple of zombies, there's no way I could fight off something like a tiger.)" He sighed nervously as he kept looking through the gates to try and spot any of the animals. "(Maybe I could use Hypnosis if I ran into something. It hasn't worked so for but that down mean-)"

"Ninten!"

Ninten jumped in suprise as his thoughts were interrupted by a shrill voice coming from his right. He looked over to see Pippi running towards him, slingshot in hand.

"Pippi? I thought the mayor was taking you home, what happened?"

"He left me as soon as we left town, so I came to help you! What are waiting for?" She said all this with a mischievous smile on her face, seemingly unaware of the dangers being presented.

"Ugh, seriously... (That scumbag, who just leaves a kid by her- WAIT DID SHE SAY SHE'S COMING WITH ME?!)" Ninten's eyes bugged out as he processed what Pippi had just said. "Nononononono you can't come with me, it's way to dangerous."

"Why not?" Pippi stared at him with a face of confusion. "We can totally handle it!."

"Pippi there could be living, breathing tigers in there for all we know! I don't want you getting hurt."

"But you could just heal me if I get hurt, right?"

"Yeah, but there's a limit to that. I'd rather not risk it."

"But you could just protect me so I don't get hurt, right?"

"I would, but I would barely be able to defend myself, I don't know-"

"And that's why you'd need me! I'd be the best backup!" She puffed up her chest to try and emphasize this.

"Yes, well, no, but... s-stop putting words in my mouth." Ninten sighed as he silently cursed Pippi's persistence. "Pippi please just go home, your mom is worried sick about you."

"No, I want to help you! My mom can wait." She sat down and crossed her arms as she said this. "And I'm not moving until you say I can go with you."

"Pippi..." Ninten could feel himself breaking from Pippi's constant counter arguments. "Ok fine, you can come with me, but-"

"Yes! Pippi cut him off again as she sprang from the ground and fist pumped the air. "Let's go then!"

"Hey, wait. If you're coming with me, you HAVE to promise that you'll stay next to me at all times, that way I can keep an eye on you. Ok?"

"Ok." Pippi responded with a thumbs up. "Now let's go!" She got up and waited next to the door as the monkey stared at her, seemingly unfazed by all of her yelling.

"Yeah just give me a second." Ninten found the padlock holding the door shut and got the key out of his bag. Before he could even react the monkey leapt up and grabbed it. It then climbed over the fence and disappeared on the other side, leaving a very annoyed and dumbfounded Ninten.

"Wh-what?! Hey get back here!" He tried to get the monkeys attention, but it was long gone. "Ugh! Of all the damn things to happen! How am I supposed to get in now!?" During Ninten's rambling, Pippi walked over to the padlock and checked it out.

"Maybe I can get another one from the mayors assistant, he said they had plenty. Ugh what the heck would I tell him though, that a freaking monkey took it!"

Clunk*

A sound managed to snap Ninten out of his rambling as he looked over to find the source. Pippi was standing in front of the door with the padlock in her hands, now completely separated from the door.

"I... wha... huh?" Ninten could only stare at her completely dumbfounded.

"It was rusty, so it was easy to pull off." Pippi said nonchalantly as she threw the lock on the ground. "Now come on, let's go!"

"(That was still solid metal. How the heck did she do that...)" Trying his best not to question what he just saw, Ninten shook his head and entered the zoo with Pippi in tow. Both of them clueless as to what the would find.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a couple things I want to say, you can ignore these if you want.
> 
> 1: Like the other characters, Clark and Vivian probably won't be returning. I just wanted to give them names.
> 
> 2: I'm really sorry this chapter took two months. I just kept putting it off and kept getting writers block. Hopefully this won't happen much in the future.
> 
> Anyway that's it. Please leave any criticisms you have with the story so far, I really want to make this good.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys like this, I’m planning on finishing this and hope to update this at least once a week. This is my first fanfic so any advice or criticism is appreciated.


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